8gb iPod Touch: There is so much to touch! (Review 150!!!)

When I first saw the advertisement for the iPod Touch , I knew that I had to get one! And just recently I did. I anxiously waited for the UPS truck to pull up by my drive, and one day it finally did! I love this device because it is a lot of fun to use and has so much to do with it!

~~~The Features~~~

Safari
Safari is the web browser that is used on t he iPod Touch. When you are in a Wi-Fi connection you can open the Internet on your iPod! Safari is probably the fastest mobile web browser! With Safari you can open more than one page at a time, speed through on great Internet, and all on your iPod! Safari offers a touch-screen QWERTY keyboard. With the Internet there are 5 buttons on the bottom which are the back, forward, add to bookmarks, bookmarks, and the tab button. With these you can view previous pages with back and forward, add favorite websites, and open more than one web page! Safari is a great program on the iPod Touch and in fact, I am even writing this review on my iPod!

YouTube
Now with this iPod you can watch your YouTube right from your pocket! The YouTube icon on your iPod Touch is the picture of an old-fashioned television set. When you open YouTube on your iPod you will find 5 icons across the bottom of the screen.

The first icon is the Featured and it shows a list of all of the featured YouTube videos at the moment. The second icon is the Most Viewed which will show you the most viewed videos for today, this week, or overall. Now if you like a video a lot and want to watch it again, you can simply add it to your bookmarks using the third and middle icon! The fourth icon lets you search through videos as you would normally on a computer. The final icon is the More icon which will show you the recently viewed videos, top rated, and history.

The only problem with the YouTube was that I misinterpreted an advertisement for the iPod Touch in thinking that when it said YouTube anywhere it meant without having to use Wi-Fi, but sadly I stand corrected. You cannot use YouTube on your iPod Touch without Internet access.

Calendar
This calendar is very useful and it has become my official pocket calendar in which I record all of my events! The calendar icon is a white square with a red line across the top. In the red it says the day of the week and underneath that it says the day of the month. You can view the calendar in three ways. The first way is in list form. This shows a list of every event that you have programmed into the iPod. The second viewing option is by day in which it shows the whole day and the times and you see where there are events. The last way (my favorite) is by month and each day that has an event has a dot underneath. You can click a day and view the events on the bottom. In the top right you can click today which will bring you to the date it is. When you want to add an event you click the addition symbol in the top right corner. Then you can enter a title for the event and a location. You choose a date and a time and which time it will end. One thing that I love is the repeat option. You simply click that and you can repeat that event every day, week, 2 weeks, month, or year. You may also click when to stop the repeat. Alerts are available and you can choose if you want one. The other nice option is adding notes for when you view the event. This program is very useful!

Contacts
I store all of my phone numbers and friends in my iPod Touch with Contacts. You can list them alphabetically by first name or last name, and you can choose which order to display the names. When you want to add a contact all you need to do is click the addition symbol in the top right. When you add a contact you can add their first and last name, photo, company, phone number (as many as you want), email, URL, address, prefix, middle name, suffix, phonetic first name, phonetic last name, nickname, job title, department, birthday, special date, and a note! The thing that I like is that you can add more than one number and it could be a work, mobile, or house number!

Calculator
The iPod Touch also comes with a calculator that allows you to divide, multiply, add, and subtract with just your fingers! The calculator is also very stylish with cool colors for the keys and they light up when touched. Since the iPod Touch screen is so clear, the numbers display perfectly across the top and are very easy to read!

Clock
There is also a clock on the iPod Touch. I don’t use it that much because it shows the digital time right on the top of your screen, but it does come in handy at times. There are four buttons across the bottom when you open the Clock. The first is World Clock which allows you to search for cities across the globe and save them. The second is the Alarm in which you can add alarms. When you set alarms you can choose to repeat them, choose the sound, decide if you want to snooze, and set the time! The third icon is the Stopwatch. It displays the time nicely and you press the start button when you want to go. The nice thing is that you can press the lap button for each lap of running if you want! The last button is the Timer which allows you to choose how long to set it and what sound to make when finished.

Music
Obviously your iPod still has to allow you to listen to music! But, this new way of viewing your music is the best so far! The music icon is on your home screen on the bottom left. It is orange and displays a music note. When you open your music you can view it by playlists (which you can make using iTunes), artist, songs, or albums! With the more button you can decide which icons should go across the bottom if you don’t like the original setup! When you listen to your music you simply click a song and it will play. You don’t have to stay on the screen though! You can use the calculator or do something else while listening. When you click the song it will show the picture of the album and across the bottom you can set the volume level and skip to the next or previous song, or pause. If you click the button in the top right, you are able to rate the song. If you want to know how much more time you have of the song just click the picture and it will tell you how long you listened and also how much time is left! A new thing with the iPod touch is cover flow. This allows you to turn your iPod to its side and view pictures of the albums across the screen. Now you can enjoy your music more than ever before!

Videos
When you are in the mood to watch a movie you can watch one with videos which is the blue icon on the bottom. Your videos will come in very clear! If you want to fast forward or rewind, you may do that by tapping the screen and moving the bar. You can also view the remaining time and adjust the volume in this way! You can also switch from full screen to widescreen by just turning your iPod! The videos are so much fun to watch on here because of the great screen and quality of video!

Photos
With your iPod Touch you can view up to 10,000 photos! (That is if you have no videos or music.) The photos come in very clear with the huge screen and you can zoom in on them easily with your fingers! You can set pictures as your wallpaper or contacts or you can just view them!

iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store
Now with just the tap of your finger you can buy songs, photos, videos, games, podcasts, and TV shows! Instead of plugging your iPod Touch into your computer and then downloading things off iTunes, now you can go somewhere with Wi-Fi and download right from your iPod!

~~~The Design~~~

The iPod Touch has a very shiny finish to it! There is a 3.5 inch display (diagonal) and it is very thin! The depth of the iPod Touch is only 0.31 inches! The iPod will fit in your pocket too because it is only 4.3 inches high and 2.4 inches wide. This is also very lightweight because it only weighs 4.2 ounces! The screen is black but the back is silver and there are only two buttons on the whole iPod. The first button is at the top left corner on the side and this button will turn it on and off or lock it! The second button is known as the “home button.” When your iPod Touch is locked you press this button and then slide to unlock. You can also press it while you are doing something and it will take you to the home screen. This button is a circle but shows the picture of a square. The iPod Touch looks very stylish!

~~~In the Box~~~

Your iPod comes in a nice box with a picture of an iPod Touch on the front of it. The iPod Touch is in the box, but it also comes with a couple other things. When you open the box you will find the iPod Touch, earphones, USB 2.0 Cable, Dock Adapter, Polishing Cloth, Stand, and a Quick Start Guide. The earphones are very nice and durable. The USB Cable is what you use to connect your iPod to your computer for iTunes or charging. The Dock Adapter allows you to use accessories made by third party companies. The Polishing Cloth is a black rectangle in the exact shape of your iPod and works nicely. The Stand is plastic and holds your iPod Touch up. The Quick Start Guide has everything you need to know to get started with your new multimedia player!

~~~How to Use~~~

The iPod Touch is very simple to use and I found that I didn’t even use the quick start guide. When you turn it on you hold the button in the top left and slide the bar along the bottom to get to the home screen. The Home Button will allow you to unlock your iPod or take you to the home screen, closing out of programs being used. When your iPod needs charged you connect it with the USB cord to your computer and let it charge. A full charge will take a couple of hours. When you want to open something, you just tap the icon. This iPod is very easy to use!

~~~iTunes~~~

iTunes is a entertainment store that is right from your computer and open all the time! You can download the latest version at the Apple website. This lets you download music and more to add onto your iPod. You can browse through the selection of over 6 million songs on iTunes and listen to 30 second previews. When you want to buy a song, every single one costs 99 cents! Albums are also available, but they cost around $10 depending upon how popular the group is and the number of songs.

Each movie costs either $9.99 or $14.99 depending upon how recent it is. Movies are also available for rental and it costs $2.99 for library titles and $3.99 for recent releases. The movies disappear when the rental is over, so they do not take up any storage space. You have 1 month to start the movie, but once you start it you only have 24 hours left with the rental.

TV Shows can also be bought for your iPod and it will cost $1.99 or $2.99 for one episode or around $20 for the whole season. iTunes has a huge variety of TV Shows and there are over 600 different ones! This means you are very likely to find the show that you want!

Audio books start as low as $0.99 and work up to $25.95! The newer and more popular the book, the more it costs. Prices also depend on how long the book is. Audio books are where you listen to the book read aloud to you. Podcasts can also be found on iTunes. Podcasts are videos that other people post. You can subscribe to these for free! When you click subscribe the most recent episode is downloaded and the future episodes will also download automatically. You can even post your own podcast onto iTunes! iTunes also features some very entertaining games all for $4.99, but unfortunately the games can’t be downloaded onto the iPod Touch.

~~~Jailbreaking~~~

You may have heard of Jailbreaking your iPod, but you might not have. Jailbreaking is where you install AppSnap which allows you to download 3rd party applications right onto your iPod. There are many different methods, but I found only one to work. The method that I used was downloading ZiPhone onto your computer. Then you connect your iPod Touch and jailbreak it. There is white scrolling down the page. When the process is finished, you go to the Home Screen and there are two more icons. One is the Installer icon and one is Zibri’s Blog icon. The Zibri’s Blog icon is pointless and it just takes you to the website blog. When you open Installer (make sure you have Internet access) you will see featured and you can look at the featured applications. You can also go to the download icon on the bottom and you can view all of the programs available to download.

~~~What is the Home Screen?~~~

You may have noticed me mention the “Home Screen” a couple times in this review. In case you didn’t know, this is what the Home Screen is. The Home Screen is the screen that all the icons show up on. It is the first screen after you turn the iPod on. When you click the Home Button at the bottom of your iPod Touch it will take you to the Home Screen. The Home Button is like a quick way of closing out of something. The Home Screen is your iPod’s Desktop. Just like a computer has one, the Home Screen acts exactly like it on the iPod Touch!

~~~Where do I get One?~~~

There are many, many, many stores that sell the iPod Touch. You can look at Best Buy, Circuit City, Wal-Mart, Kmart, or any other electronic store. You can also order one online from the Apple store or any other website, which is what I did. I ordered mine from bhphotovideo.com and that had the cheapest price. You also have to decide if you want to get it with or without the January Software Update. The January Software Update costs more, but you get more. If you get that then you have Maps, Mail, Notes, Weather, and Stocks. If you buy your iPod Touch without the January Software Update, you can still download it right from iTunes onto your iPod Touch which only costs $20! At bhphotovideo.com an 8gb iPod Touch with the January Software Update costs $279.95 and an 8gb iPod Touch without the January Software Update costs $249.95 which means that even if you want the January Software Update you should buy it without first and then install that later! You can also choose which size you want, although it only costs $100 to upgrade to 16gb so you may want to start with the 8gb!

~~~Amazing Technology~~~

Multi-Touch
The iPod Touch takes the full advantage of the touch screen and it allows you to do everything with just your fingers! You can zoom in on web pages and pictures, scroll down pages, use Cover Flow, or using the QWERTY keyboard! With this high technology you will be amazed what you can do with just your hands!

Wireless
With the iPod Touch can connect to the Internet anywhere that there is a Wi-Fi connection! You can surf the Internet, send mail, or browse or buy songs and videos on the Wi-Fi iTunes Store!

Accelerometer
The accelerometer detects when you rotate your iPod Touch from portrait to landscape. When this is detected, the iPod changes the contents of the page so that you see the whole width of the web page, views your music in Cover Flow, or switches the view of the picture on the screen.

~~~Overall Recommendation~~~

I highly recommend this device because it has so many cool features and amazing high technology! It may be a little bit pricey, but trust me, it is worth the money! You will love it for sure!